Under pressure: China’s PhD programmes exert heavy toll on students, yet many push on
- PhD students in China face outsize challenges as they try to complete their degrees, according to a survey by British scientific journal Nature
- Only 55 per cent of Chinese respondents felt at least partially satisfied with their academic experience, compared to 72 per cent outside the country
The journal’s fifth biennial doctoral student survey, which was translated into Chinese, attracted 690 responses from China – the highest number in the survey’s eight years, Nature said in a post on its website on Tuesday. From the rest of the world, 5,630 people responded.
The responses revealed that Chinese PhD students struggle with work-life balance, career guidance and emotional support, according to the journal.
Among Chinese respondents, only 55 per cent felt at least partially satisfied with their academic experience, compared with 72 per cent outside the country, and just 5 per cent in China said their programme exceeded expectations while the corresponding rate elsewhere was more than twice as high.
The number of Chinese students pursuing a doctorate degree has grown rapidly in the past few decades – there were only 18 PhD students enrolled in 1978, according to Nature, while 95,502 PhD students enrolled in 2018 according to figures from the Chinese Ministry of Education.